Josie Glausiusz and Jane Bosveld, Discover Magazine, write about how the California State Parks Department is maintaining Bodie, California, in a state of ‘arrested decay’ and about the once thriving gold coast town’s iconic status as America’s most famous ghost town. Since 1962, Bodie has been designated as a State Historic Park.

Gaze into one of the ramshackle buildings in Bodie, California, and you might see dust-covered furniture, an old muffin pan, rusty tins, and broken kerosene lamps. Or you might see a fully stocked general store with original wooden boxes and shelves with tin cans. The old gold-mining town, once bustling with saloons, brothels, gambling halls, and even opium dens, is now a ghost town, probably the most famous one in America.

So, what does Bodie have in store for visitors? Other than ghosts, that is. Look, I just don’t wanna get into the whole ghosts-are-real-or-not debate…I mean, everybody and their crazy bat of an aunt has seen a ghost, so let’s just focus on Bodie for visitors.

Bodie is located in Mono County, east of the Sierra Nevada, 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe, about 13 miles East of U.S. Highway 395. Exit Highway 395 for Bodie about seven miles south of Bridgeport. The last ten miles is a dirt road which is usually closed in winter, so the best time to visit is the summer. As of now, the winter snows have started melting and the park will be open for visitors starting 1st April from 8 am to 5 pm.

Since there are no camping sites or stores in Bodie, or even in the vicinity, and depending on whether you’re coming from Reno or Vegas, stop over at Bridgeport or Lee Vining to fill up on gas and supplies. Make sure you carry bottled water and a sweatshirt of windbreaker, because Bodie is at a high altitude, and it’s pretty cold in the morning and late afternoon, even in the summer. 

Access to the park is set at $3 for adults (free for 16 and younger). If you’re planning on going before the spring fully sets in, some sort of snow transportation is recommended, since four-wheel drives are not sufficient to plow through the deep snow on the dirt road leading to the town and within the streets of Bodie. Snow storms are a distinct possibility even in late spring, so make sure you’re uptodate on weather forecasts before you set out for some ghost busting. A tour booklet describing the various buildings is available for purchase at the Park bookstore at the Miner’s Union Hall, which doubles as a museum, and you can also book yourself in for a guided tour of the stamp mill. If you’re going to stay overnight, you need to find one of the nearby camping sites (at least 3 miles out of Bodie on BLM land) or put up at one of the hotels in Bridgeport.

Info: Bodie State Historic Park, P.O. Box 515, Bridgeport, CA 93517
Tel: (760) 647-6445 Email: bodie@friendsofbodie.org; Web:  www.bodie.com

Posted on March 18th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: California, Cities